Workers
in Korea has the longest work hours in the Organization of Economic
Cooperation Development (#1) and the vast majority of high school
students, along with some middle school students, are pressured to
study hard while being cooped up in their school for at least 10
hours are in desperate need of more days off. Compared to the amount
of breaks America has, Korea does not have many, and they only have
about 14 public holidays a year (#1). According to the new
legislation, it is only when the public holiday falls on a weekend
that an additional day is given for break, not every time there is a
holiday. So this is enough to improve the quality of life in Korea
while managing to maintain its productivity, in my humble opinion.
But
there are others who voice out their disapproval, particularly the
high-ranked people in the business field (#2). Their complaints are
that they will have to pay their workers more while they get more
days off. But this sounds to me a much exaggerated complaint due to
the fact that the reality is a majority of Korean workers are
overworked and underpaid
(#2).
I
understand that although Korea is officially labeled as a developed
country, its country is still not developed enough to compete with
the other international markets and blah blah, and the details that I
don't know about. Therefore I understand that in order to compete,
Korea must educate its students strictly and work their workers hard.
But to me, those people who are supposedly afraid that allowing
substitute
holidays will slow down production sound like they're just being
stingy. Like I said, a vast majority of Korea workers are overworked
and underpaid and yet their bosses are complaining about paying them
more, what, every two holidays a year? Not even, I don't know when
public holidays generally fall on weekends. But do you see my point?
I don't think this new legislation of substitute holidays is asking
for too much and is an unmeetable demand.
As
a Korean-American living in America, I long to live in Korea! But the
one thing that gives me relief that I don't live there is the
schooling. Oh my. We Americans think we've got it bad (but don't get
me wrong, we do), but Korea's education system is probably the worst.
I know that one Korean high school that teaches trignometry to
freshmen ~ sophomores (yes, this is accurate) who aren't all even capable of
taking that high level of math and I've heard someone from the “outside”
wonder if it's necessary for all students to be taught that. I mean,
shouldn't the ones who are majoring in math the only ones to take such an advanced
class? So I agree that since Korea is a less developed country than
America, it may just be necessary that students go to school more
days than here but I feel like they go too far sometimes.
So
my point is, this new legislation for substitute holidays is a
much-needed, great idea and it just confuses me that some have
complaints about it. Now I know that I'm not posting this after I've
done 100% of all my research but, knowing so well how Korea's
education system works (I know this part more than how it is in the
work force), I have to say, this new legislation is one of the
praiseworthy acts that first female president of South Korea, Park Keun
Hye, has done.(643)
Sources:
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